Emerging Czech talent Adam Sedlák has shot his sophomore feature, titled BANGER. [+lee también:
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ficha de la película], a chamber social horror about disruption to a relationship and a body. Domestique travelled around 20 international film festivals, netted the Best New Director Award and Special Jury Prize at the Sitges Film Festival and was sold to five territories. It is now available on Netflix.

Sedlák will be clutching his latest work when he returns to the turf where his debut started its festival run: BANGER. is slated to premiere in the Special Screenings section of the largest Czech film gathering, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (see the news).

The protagonist of Sedlák’s latest work, Alex, supposedly deals the best coke in Prague. His dream is to make his own hit rap song – his own “banger”. He takes his producer for a nighttime ride across the city to get rapper Sergei Barracuda (who plays an on-screen version of himself) on board the collaboration. “The whole story takes place over one evening, and it's a good ride. The filming had the same effect on me. I felt like it was one day of filming, even though there were 15. Many moments arose spontaneously in a given situation, so it was necessary to have Alex's energy well under all our skins,” says Adam Mišík, who portrays the leading character.

“BANGER. was originally pitched to Czech Television as a series,” reveals producer Jakub Jíra. The series idea was then swiftly reworked to fit a feature-length format. “We love to try new things at Shore Points, and after The Term, shooting a film on a mobile phone seemed like a direction we wanted to explore,” continues Jíra. It was shot on location in the streets of Prague, using only an iPhone. Post-production is proving challenging, according to the producer.

“Rap is street music, and I wanted our movie to be like a street film. Therefore, the choice to shoot on the iPhone was not an effort to save, but rather, above all, it was creative. It was clear that we had to do it that way,” notes Sedlák. He adds that his intention was to achieve “a mix of Pusher [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] and Dancer in the Dark with a dash of Superbad”. In contrast with his debut, the two-hander Domestique, BANGER. has a bigger cast, including Mišík, Marcel Bendig, Anna Fialová and rapper Sergei Barracuda, alongside social-media influencers Anna Purič, Džana Valjevac and porn star Stacy Cruz.

BANGER. is being produced by Jakub Jíra and Kryštof Zelenka, of Czech production outfit Shore Points, and Czech Television is co-producing. The Czech Film Fund supported the film. Bontonfilm will release the picture in Czech theatres on 22 September, and on 29 September, the movie will enter Slovak theatrical distribution, also handled by Bontonfilm. There is no international sales agent representing the film as yet, but the producer has informed Cineuropa that discussions are getting under way.

You can watch the teaser trailer below: